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Stanford Nobel Laureates

Stanford University is home to 17 living Nobel laureates.

Fifteen additional Stanford laureates are deceased. The business of “claiming” laureates can be controversial: Where and when was a winner’s work done? Stanford, for example, lists but does not claim laureates who are not on the faculty, even if they have a significant Stanford connection. And Stanford does not list winners with a more fleeting or tenuous connection. John Steinbeck, the 1962 literature winner, for instance, did not make the cut although he attended Stanford — receiving a “C” in freshman English in 1919 and dropping out in 1921, only to reenter the university as a journalism major in 1923 and drop out again in 1925.

Nobel Laureates

Chemistry (2014)

W.E. Moerner

W.E. Moerner, the Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry at Stanford, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shares the prize with Eric Betzig, of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Stefan W. Hell, of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, in Germany. The three were honored “for having bypassed a presumed scientific limitation stipulating that an optical microscope can never yield a resolution better than 0.2 micrometers.”

Michael Levitt

Michael Levitt, professor of structural biology at the School of Medicine, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shares the prize with Martin Karplus of Université de Strasbourg, France, and Harvard University, and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California. The three were honored “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.”

Thomas Südhof

Neuroscientist Thomas Südhof, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at the School of Medicine, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He shares the award with James Rothman of Yale University and Randy Schekman of UC-Berkeley. The three are honored “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.”

Alvin Roth

Roth, a visiting professor and Stanford alum who becomes a full Stanford faculty member in 2013, is a pioneer in the field of game theory and experimental economics and in their application to the design of new economic institutions. As one of the first “microeconomic engineers,” Roth has redesigned the market for kidney exchange, the organization that matches medical residents with hospitals, public school choice systems and a variety of other institutions.

Brian Kobilka

Brian Kobilka, MD, professor and chair of molecular and cellular physiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on G-protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs.

Thomas J. Sargent

Thomas J Sargent, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution; shared the 2011 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Christopher A. Sims for research that shed light on the cause-and-effect relationship between the economy and policy instruments such as interest rates and government spending.

Andrew Fire

Andrew Fire, the George D. Smith Professor in Molecular and Genetic Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Genetics, along with Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, won the Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine in 2006. The pair are part of a team of researchers credited with recognizing that certain RNA molecules can be used to turn off specific genes in animal cells. The discovery, made while Fire was at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Embryology in Baltimore, marked the first time that biologists were able to selectively “silence” the voice of one gene in the cacophony of the tens of thousands that give a cell its marching orders from development to death. Their description of the process, called RNA interference or RNAi, in Nature in 1998, jumpstarted a new biological field by opening up previously inaccessible areas of research.

Roger Kornberg

Roger Kornberg a professor of structural biology at the Stanford School of Medicine, won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in understanding how DNA is converted into RNA, a process known as transcription. In 2001 Kornberg published the first molecular snapshot of the protein machinery responsible – RNA polymerase – in action. The finding helped explain how cells express all the information in the human genome, and how that expression sometimes goes awry, leading to cancer, birth defects and other disorders.

Carl Wieman

Carl Wieman, Professor of Physics and of the Graduate School of Education, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics. He shares the award with Wolfgang Ketterle, John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at MIT, and Eric A. Cornell, senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and professor adjoint at the University of Colorado-Boulder and Stanford alumnus (1985). The three were honored “for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates.”

Physics (1998)

Robert Laughlin

Robert Laughlin, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences; professor of physics and applied physics; at Stanford 1985-present. Awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in physics with Horst L. Störmer and Daniel C. Tsui “for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations.”

Since receiving the prize, Laughlin has supported recruitment of talented new faculty and continued to expand the depth and scope of his own research, which is theoretical and focuses on how self-organization and self-assembly arise in nature. This theme is applicable in fields as diverse as cosmology and biology, explaining Laughlin’s work on topics including subtle ordering phenomena in correlated-electron materials, the physics of transcription regulation in biology and the quantum mechanics of black holes. About one-third of his research students are undergraduates.

Economic Sciences (1997)

Myron S. Scholes

Myron S. Scholes, the Frank E. Buck Professor of Finance, Emeritus; at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business 1983-1996. Senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution 1987-1996. Awarded the 1997 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Robert C. Merton “for a new method to determine the value of derivatives.”

Since receiving the prize, Scholes has used his background in options pricing, capital markets, tax policies and the financial services industry as a managing partner for Oak Hill Capital Management. He also is involved in the private and public investment groups of the Robert M. Bass organization. He also consults widely with many financial institutions, corporations and exchanges and continues to lecture worldwide. Scholes was a principal and limited partner at Long-Term Capital Management, L.P., an investment management firm, from 1993 to 1998.

Physics (1997)

Steven Chu

Steven Chu, the Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics; at Stanford 1987-present. Awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.”

Since receiving the prize, Chu has continued his studies of laser cooling and trapping of atoms and their applications. He also has expanding his research scope to include polymer physics and biophysics at the single-molecule level. As virtually all knowledge of chemical and biochemical processes has been deduced from experiments on bulk samples of molecules, looking at individual molecules – such as those involved in DNA replication, RNA transcription and protein folding – may elucidate their complex behavior. Chu served as chair of the Physics Department from 1990 to 1993 and from 1999 to September 2001 and is a member of the executive committee for Bio-X, an interdisciplinary research initiative at Stanford.

Physics (1996)

Douglas Osheroff

Douglas Osheroff, the J. G. Jackson and C. J. Wood Professor of Physics; at Stanford 1987-present. Awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in physics with David M. Lee and Robert C. Richardson “for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3.”

Since receiving the prize, Osheroff’s research has continued to focus on the properties of matter near Absolute Zero. He recently received a NASA grant to carry out two fundamental physics experiments to further explore the properties of superfluid helium-3. He participates in numerous outreach efforts to encourage scientific education both inside and outside the university. He teaches in the Physics Department, where he recently became chair.

Economic Sciences (1990)

William F. Sharpe

William F. Sharpe, the STANCO 25 Professor in the Graduate School of Business, Emeritus; at Stanford 1970-present. Awarded the 1990 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Harry M. Markowitz and Merton H. Miller “for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics.”

Since receiving the prize, Sharpe has focused on research, teaching and helping found a company designed to bring knowledge from the field of financial economics to bear on the problems individual investors have saving and investing for retirement. Since 1996, the company, Financial Engines, has employed computer and communications technology to make high-quality advice available to individuals at low cost.

Paul Berg

Paul Berg, the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research, Emeritus, and director emeritus of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine; at Stanford 1959-present. Awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in chemistry “for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant DNA.” The other half of the award went to Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger “for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids.”

Since receiving the prize, Berg has continued to conduct research in the Department of Biochemistry, where his focus is the mechanism of repairing DNA damage. He continues to influence federal policy regarding stem cell research, biotechnology and human cloning.

Deceased

Economic Sciences (1972)

Kenneth J. Arrow

Economic Sciences (1972); died 2017; with John R. Hicks “for their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory.” Arrow, the Joan Kenney Professor of Economics and Professor of Operations Research, Emeritus, was a member of the Stanford faculty from 1949 to 1968. He returned to Stanford in 1979 and became emeritus in 1991.

Economic Sciences (1992)

Gary Becker

Economic Sciences (1992); died 2014; “for having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behavior and interaction, including nonmarket behavior.” Becker was a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution from 1990 until he died. He was also a professor at the University of Chicago.

Physics (1952)

Felix Bloch

Physics (1952); died 1983; with Edward Mills Purcell “for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith.” Bloch, a professor of physics, came to Stanford in 1934 and became emeritus in 1971.

Chemistry (1974)

Paul Flory

Chemistry (1974); died 1985; “for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of the macromolecules.” Flory, a professor of chemistry, came to Stanford in 1961 and became emeritus in 1975.

Economics (1976)

Milton Friedman

Economics (1976); died 2006; awarded the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel “for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.” Friedman was a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution from 1977 until he died. He was also a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago.

Physics (1961)

Robert Hofstadter

Physics (1961); died 1990; “for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons.” Hofstadter, a professor of physics, came to Stanford in 1950 and became emeritus in 1985.

Medicine (1959)

Arthur Kornberg

Medicine (1959) died 2007; Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Severo Ochoa “for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid.” Kornberg, a professor of biochemistry at the School of Medicine, came to Stanford in 1959 and became emeritus in 1988.

Economic Sciences (1993)

Douglass North

Economic sciences (1993); died 2015; with Robert W. Fogel “for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change.” North was the Bartlett Burnap Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution from 1997 to 2015.

Chemistry (1954); Peace (1962)

Linus C. Pauling

Chemistry (1954); peace (1962); died 1994; at the time of the awards at the California Institute of Technology; chemistry: “for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances”; peace: for his efforts to bring about an international ban on nuclear testing and to promote world peace. Pauling, a professor of chemistry, came to Stanford in 1969 and became emeritus in 1975.

Physics (1995)

Martin Perl

Physics (1995); died 2014; “for the discovery of the tau lepton.” He shared the award “for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics” with Frederick Reines, who was cited “for the detection of the neutrino.” Perl, who came to Stanford in 1963, was a professor at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory until he died.

Physics (1976)

Burton Richter

Physics (1976); died 2018; with Samuel C.C. Ting “for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind.” Richter came to Stanford as a research associate in 1956 and joined the faculty in 1960. He became emeritus in 2006. He was director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (now SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) from 1984 to 1999.

Physics (1981)

Arthur L. Schawlow

Physics (1981); died 1999; with Nicolaas Bloembergen “for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy.” Schawlow, a professor of physics, came to Stanford in 1961 and became emeritus in 1991.

Physics (1956)

William Shockley

Physics (1956); died 1989; at the time of the award at the Semiconductor Laboratory of Beckman Instruments; with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain “for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect.” Shockley, a professor of electrical engineering, came to Stanford in 1963 and became emeritus in 1975.

PHYSICS (1990)

Richard E. Taylor

Physics (1990); died 2018; with Jerome I. Friedman and Henry W. Kendall “for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics.” Taylor, who earned his PhD at Stanford in 1962, spent his career as a particle physicist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University.

Chemistry (1983)

Henry Taube

Chemistry (1983); died 2005; “for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes.” Taube, a professor of chemistry, came to Stanford in 1962 and became emeritus in 2001.

Other Nobel Connections

Eric A. Cornell shared the 2001 physics prize with Carl E. Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle “for creating Bose-Einstein condensation using laser cooling and evaporation techniques.” Cornell, a senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and professor adjoint at the University of Colorado-Boulder, received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Stanford in 1985. Wieman received his doctorate from Stanford in 1977 and is currently a Professor of Physics and of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.

Robert H. Grubbs, chemistry (2005), was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Stanford in 1968-69 working with chemistry Professor James Collman. Grubbs, a professor of chemistry at Caltech, was cited with Yves Chauvin and Richard R. Schrock “for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis.”

Theodor Hänsch, physics (2005), was at Stanford from 1970 to 1986 (postdoc–professor). Since 1986 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, he was cited with John L. Hall “for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique.” They share the Nobel Prize with Roy J. Glauber.

John C. Harsanyi, economic sciences (1994), earned a Stanford degree: Ph.D. ’59 in economics. The University of California-Berkeley professor was cited with John F. Nash and Reinhard Selten “for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games.” Harsanyi died Aug. 9, 2000.

Dudley Herschbach, chemistry (1986), holds two Stanford degrees: B.S. ’54 in mathematics and M.S. ’55 in chemistry. The Harvard professor was cited with Yuan T. Lee and John C. Polanyi “for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.”

Bengt Holmström, economic sciences (2016), holds two Stanford degrees: MS ’75 in operations research and PhD ’78 in business. The MIT professor was cited with Oliver Hart “for their contributions to contract theory.”

Paul Krugman, economic sciences (2008), of Princeton University is a former member of the Stanford faculty. He was cited “for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.” Krugman was at Stanford from 1994 to 1996 (visiting professor in 1993-94).

Willis E. Lamb Jr., physics (1955), was a professor at Stanford at the time of his award; he left for Oxford University in 1956. Lamb was cited “for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum.” At Stanford 1951-56; Oxford 1956-62; Yale 1962-74; Arizona 1974-2008; died 2008.

Joshua Lederberg, physiology or medicine (1958), of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, at the time of his award, was chair of genetics at Stanford for several years. Lederberg shared the 1958 prize with two professors who left Stanford before they became Nobelists: George Beadle and Edward Tatum. Lederberg was cited “for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria.” Beadle and Tatum were cited “for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events.”

Paul Modrich, chemistry (2015), received his PhD in biochemistry from Stanford in 1973. The professor of biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine was cited with Tomas Lindahl and Aziz Sancar “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair.”

Ferid Murad, physiology or medicine (1998), of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, is a former professor of medicine at Stanford. He was cited with Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro “for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system.” Murad was affiliated with the University of Virginia, 1975-81; Stanford, 1981-89; Abbott Laboratories, 1990-92; Molecular Geriatrics Corp., 1993-95; University of Texas Medical School, 1996-present.

James E. Rothman, physiology or medicine (2013), of Yale University was a member of the Stanford faculty from 1978 to 1988. He was cited with Thomas C. Südhof, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford, and Randy W. Schekman “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.”

Randy W. Schekman, physiology or medicine (2013), holds a Stanford degree: PhD ’75 in biochemistry. Schekman is a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was cited with Thomas C. Südhof, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford, and James E. Rothman “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.”

Melvin Schwartz, physics (1988), was a consulting professor at Stanford at the time of his award; he was a faculty member from 1966 to 1983. He shared the award with Leon M. Lederman and Jack Steinberger “for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.” At Digital Pathways, Mountain View, Calif., 1983-91; Columbia, 1991-2000; died 2006.

Oliver Williamson, economic sciences (2009), holds a Stanford degree: MBA ’60. A professor at the University of California, Berkeley, he was cited “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.” He shared the award with Elinor Ostrom.

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Herbert L. Abrams, professor emeritus of radiology, is a co-founder (1980) and member of that organization

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” Six Stanford scholars are lead authors of several major IPPC reports. The Stanford researchers, who are among roughly 2,000 scientists and policy experts from around the world who have contributed to the IPCC’s work, are Chris Field, professor of biology and of environmental Earth system science and director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford; Thomas Heller, professor of law and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Michael Mastrandrea, assistant consulting professor at the Woods Institute and lecturer in the School of Earth Sciences; Terry Root, senior fellow at the Woods Institute; Stephen Schneider (d. 2010), professor of biology and senior fellow at the Woods Institute; and John Weyant, professor (research) of management science and engineering.